ESCP ALUMNI magazine - #205 - Mars 2024 - 41

D
Dossier ❙ Interview
When we finish
university, we
naively think
we're going to
become CEO
in three years.
A professional
career is
40-years-long,
if not more. So
being resilient,
constantly
curious and
accepting that
you have a long
road ahead
of yourself is
crucial.
company for five years now, but looking
back, my experience has changed so much!
Even in a day-to-day perspective. I started
leading operations for TikTok in the Italian
market - which basically meant focusing
on content strategy, creator strategy and
the partnership strategy - building a team
of ten people, managing them through the
pandemic. We recently gathered a global
team trying to understand how we could
scale entertainment on the platform. Even
this year, I've done so many different things
that require learning to adapt and understand
how you can thrive despite the circumstances
that might have changed. Some people
might see this as challenging, I see it as an
extremely positive and necessary 'discomfort'.
Earlier you talked about the
" intersection between creativity,
entertainment and technology " .
Would it be your definition of what
TikTok does?
N.P: Ultimately, I think TikTok provides a set
of tools to express creativity. The same way
the painter uses a canvas and paint-brushes.
What is interesting about TikTok is that it's a
video platform which empowers everyone
to be a creator. With the idea that everyone
has a story to tell. Everyone has something to
express. How precisely do we build the tools
to empower that kind of creativity? That's for
me the most fascinating thing about TikTok.
And I think I'm interested in technology as
a way for people to share and create things.
A way for brands as well, right?
N.P: Indeed! As I was responsible for TikTok's
development in the Italian market, I started
thinking: " Hang on, we focus on creators a
lot, but what about brands? They have their
own stories to tell " . At that time, users and
creators were creating these amazing shortform
videos. But what about if Netflix was to
start creating their own content? So I started
asking myself: how can we implement this
for brands? How can we empower brands to
act as creators? That's where we began seeing
a different behavior; before brands were very
polished whereas on TikTok, brands started
to be very approachable, commenting on
videos, almost acting like creators. HBO is
the perfect example, with the " House of the
Dragon " series: they put online an interview
with one of their actors (Emma D'Arcy,
editor's note) who had to reveal their favorite
cocktail. Their " Negroni Sbagliato " reply
instantly became a source of inspiration
for other videos! It's fascinating to see how
something that you think is not useful or
interesting is actually extremely useful and
interesting to the TikTok audience. From that
point, we really became aware of one thing:
people really want to see the 'behind-thescenes'
of brands.
How do you explain the late arrival
of certain brands on TikTok?
N.P: It can be a little bit scary to share certain
parts of your brand to the community. It
basically means that you have to trust your
audience and the co-creation elements of it.
ESCP Alumni Magazine numéro 205 ❙ MARS 2024
❙ 41
And surely, there is a classical tendency of
" no one wants to jump in first " . But as soon as
a brand is doing it well, others will follow.
That's what happened when we started
getting Liverpool Football Club - first
Premier League Club on TikTok - on the
platform, all the other teams began to follow.
But you need best practices, you need cases,
you need someone shaping it. Especially
because it's a platform where the feedback
is immediate. But also at the same time,
you're not necessarily connecting with your
followers. You are connecting with audiences
potentially interested in your content. A fact
that requires a lot of courage in terms of
brand experimentation, a lot of trust and a lot
of trials. Something that we often encourage:
to test the platform, to test new things.
It could almost be a pep talk, given
to current ESCP students...
N.P: Almost (he laughs). If they were in
front of me, I would probably give them
three pieces of advice. One: to acknowledge
that there isn't any right way of doing things.
If there was, everyone would be doing the
same thing and we would be all starting and
ending in the same place. Second: from my
experience at TikTok, it's very important to be
accountable and to build trust. What I mean
by that: having other people able to count
on you, having them to trust you in order
to lead them, to manage them, is the most
important skill and asset you can have in an
organization.
And third?
N.P: Be resilient! When we finish university,
we naively think we're going to become
CEO in three years. A professional career is
40-years-long, if not more. So being resilient,
constantly curious and accepting that you
have a long road ahead of yourself is crucial.
Take my parents for instance: they are in their
60s, both of them are still working as teachers
and learning new things. Neither of them
wants to retire. That's what I'm looking for. ❙
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ESCP ALUMNI magazine - #205 - Mars 2024

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